The current mentoring system is clearly broken. If Ninjr and spuck (i think) decide to leave VO, we're all stranded without UCs, and not because people are not trying.

- Many newbs only begin to really communicate with the outside world (apart from the series of "how to dock" questions) once there are close to or over a level 3 licence.
- Most new players don't know about the mentoring system, and actively asking every new player if they want official mentoring is a hassle
- Many mentorees quit playing VO before they reach a level three licence (mostly because they can't afford / don't want to spend the money fur a sub) or shortly after and never leave a mentor rating.

I don't remember who exactly suggested the following during an in-game discussion, but I quite liked the idea:
Offer players who reach their level 3 licence a mission, in which they get, say, five slots through which they can reward those players who were the most helpful to them. Maybe make one of those a "main mentor" that gets 2 points?

This variant would reward dedicated mentors like Ninjr and Chocolateer as well as part-timers who gave up on the official system but generally answer questions and/or help out, like draugath, Rin, myself to only mention a few.

If you have any other alternative ways of reforming the mentoring system please do not hesitate to post them, maybe there's a better variant.

P.S.: I apologise for any logical or syntactical and otherwise language-related errors: I'm not exactly sober, but wanted to get this suggestion out there before I forget it *again*.

+1

"If Ninjr and spuck (i think) decide to leave VO, we're all stranded without UCs"

They'd be rarer, but there is another way to get them. NPC convoys haul a wide variety of cargo, and that includes the UC. They're rare enough that somebody who was specifically looking for UCs would be ill-advised to try to farm them. If, on the other hand, you spend large amounts of time killing convoys just to sell their cargo, the occasional convoys carrying UCs add up. I hardly ever bother to use them myself, so I mostly just pile them up and then sell them to other people.

But yeah, +1 or so.

+999 mentored many a newb with weps, beams UCs ect and never got anything, doesn't even ask anymore

yes. +1

Yeah it's a good system but it requires development time so I don't think it will happen anytime soon.

What I was going to do as part of my value tweak suggestions was to get them to tweak the required amount of mentoring down to 15 mentors for the badge no.3 just because it's such a terribly broken system that you deserve it if you even go through that many.

It's not really a solution because you have to go to a special effort to explain the stupidity of the mentoring system instead of focusing on the finer points of the game to get the damn points, but the simple fact is a feature that nobody uses is not a feature.

yes +1 but hasn't this been suggested multiple times before?

As a returning player who has mentored many newbies, I must say that I mentor because I enjoy doing it not to get the UC's. As a matter of fact virtually all the players I mentor are above the level where they can rate me. I think it would take a little adjustment to just raise the mentoring rating level to 5/5/5/5/5 instead of what it is. Also there are several other players in the game who can buy UC's for you if you need them. Just don't ask me to sell you any cause I can't buy them yet!!

I have a few levels above 5... and still feel being a newbie.

+1 to increase max levels for mentoring.

+1 to reform mentoring
+2 to raise the bar on mentored

+3 to mentoring specializations
Specific mentoring for Combat, Mine and Trade, for respective levels 3...9

+1000 to remove mentwhorin' : ]